Scammer phone calls and emails (phishing)
Phishing: The fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
CAUTION: Do NOT provide your username and password to an unknown support party or person. If you get a phone call or email from anyone, that claims to be, for example, Microsoft, your bank or any other reputable company, and who claims there is something wrong with your PC, (for example, "you have a virus or malware on your PC"). Do not call that number back, do not respond to that email and do not click any links in emails, SMS messages on your phone, WhatsApp messages or any messages send to you through other means. (Highlight: do NOT click on any links in emails or messages and do NOT provide your username and password).
NEVER give out any banking info, username, passwords or codes to anyone on the phone, even if you think it's your bank. Your bank will never ask for this!
If the person is pressuring you to give out PayPal, Credit Card, or bank account information, to pay for a remote support session, immediately terminate the call. If you suspect something is wrong with your PC, call a local IT technician or company for support.
If in doubt, go directly to the www.microsoft.com website, or the involved company website, through your browser and verify which number to call for support or if supposedly your bank is mentioned call your bank at the official published telephone number in your bank documents, on their website or telephone directory.
Make sure you have Antivirus/ Malware/ Endpoint Security/ Spam software installed on your PC at all times, paid and up to date. Run a "Full Scan" on your PC regularly. Download Microsoft's Security Essentials for Windows, install it and keep it up to date.
Always check the domain name from which the email comes, many times it will show you right away that the email address does not end with @microsoft.com, but instead some obscure @gmail.com, @hotmail.com or other address like @klsdkljhd7678.com.
Call your local PC dealer or technician if in doubt. NEVER click on any links in any email, even if they look very authentic with logo and all, for instance from amazon.com, ebay.com, fedex,com, microsoft.com, adobe.com, dhl.com, etc. etc.
And "microsof.com" is NOT the same as microsoft.com, so also check if the spelling is correct. "microsoft.suport.com" or "microsoft.help1289.com" is NOT "microsoft.com". They are fake domains where they will try to get you to login with your email username and password or even your banking info.
"amazon.buy45.com", "amazon.23475.com", "amazon.buyone1.com" or any other combination is NOT amazon.com.
About Domain Names
Always "read" domain names from the right to the left. Domain names consist of different levels "3rd-Level-Domain(dot)2nd-Level-Domain(dot)Top-Level-Domain".
- Top-Level-Domains (TLDs), sometimes referred to as domain extensions can be (https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db) :
"Generic TLDs" (gTLDs) for instance ".COM", ".NET", ".ORG" etc. For more information you can visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_top-level_domain
"Country Code TLDs" (ccTLDs) for instance ".US" for the USA, ".CA" for Canada, ".MX" for Mexico, ".NL" for the Netherlands, ".FR" for France, ".UK" for the United Kingdom, ".AUS" for Australia, ".JP" for Japan, ".BE" for Belgium, ".IN" for India, ".DE" for Germany, etc. etc. Every country in the world has their own ccTLD. For the full list you can visit this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code_top-level_domain
"Hybrid domains"
- Second-Level-Domains (SLDs), can be:
"Second-Level Country Code TLDs" (ccSLDs), for instance ".BR.COM" Brazil, ".COM.AU" Australia, ".COM.DE" Germany, etc. etc.
or the name of the company, like microsoft, adobe, amazon, ebay, dell, hp, walmart, etc. etc.
For example: "support.microsoft.com" IS in fact a sub-domain of microsoft.com. Reading it from right to left.